Information in contemporary communication systems can be carried by modulated signals that go from employing only a single carrier to modulations that employ multiple carriers. These modulated signals are typically amplified prior to being transmitted either over a wired media or wirelessly, where the amplifier's performance must maintain linearity to ensure appropriate signal integrity.
When a signal is narrow band, such as is the case in a single carrier modulation scheme, the desired transmitted signal has almost a constant envelope where the ratio of the signal peak to the signal average is reasonably low. For the transmitter amplifier, this is desirable since the amplifier can be efficiently used in terms of its output power capabilities. However, when the signal is broad band, as is true when multiple carriers are used (e.g., when orthogonal frequency division modulation or wideband code division multiple access modulation), the desired transmitted signal spends less time at the peak signal ranges and the average signal value is much lower than the peak signal values. For the transmitter amplifier, this is undesirable since the amplifier needs to be adjusted so that it can accommodate the peak signals and yet spends most of its time outputting signals at a lower level. Typically, this leads to low efficiency for the power amplifier. One solution leading to more efficient usage of amplifier dynamic range is to cut off or squelch the peaks of the signal—for example, using a window squelching method. However, the determination of the window can be computationally complex and time consuming, and the squelching can distort signals beyond acceptable limits particularly in multi-carrier systems.